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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Art + History + Mystery = Terrific Book, June 15, 2010
This review is from: The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds, and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures (Hardcover)
I'm not an art connoisseur by any stretch, although I do have my tastes and don't mind the occasional museum stroll. I love history and I love a good story. When you combine art, history and terrific storytelling, you come out with a book like "The Art Detectives" by Philip Mould.
The book is structured around 6 specific paintings, and the mysteries that surround/surrounded them. Mould is a fantastic writer. He's clear, concise and sometimes poetic. It's an odd thing to focus on when considering a work of non-fiction, but his writing is as expressive and pronounced as anything I've read recently.
Mould avoids the pretension, condescension and patronizing tone that one might expect from a book on high art. And surprisingly, each story is a strong tale in and of itself. At their best, they are very personal, human and touching. At their worst, they're simply good mysteries that Mould unravels layer-by-layer with a blending of personal insight, relevant experiences, historical background and significance. And it all flows beautifully through his solid prose and storytelling abilities.
The strongest tale is of Moulds' meetings with an eccentric hoarder named Earle Newton. The story ranges from their first interactions, to their first and subsequent visits. Newton is more of an "ammasser" than he is a collector, and the real heart of the narrative is Newton's wackiness and the impact of his hoarding on his family.
Family is also at the heart of a story that centers on a well known art deception (and recovery) of a Norman Rockwell painting. After subtle clues circulate around Rockwell's "Break Home Ties", two brothers hunt for the truth of whether their father owned a real Rockwell, and whether or not he knew it was a fake.
Mould does an amazing job of making art history accessible and interesting. All of his stories involve the detective work required to identify what is genuine and authentic from what is a pretender. Mould is both eloquent and passionate in "Mystery of the Missing Gainsborough" and "The Rembrandt in Disguise". Tudor England is the focus of "A Queen in Distress", and colonial Caribbean in "A Winslow Homer Lost and Found" as Mould turns art and history into compelling mysteries.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to readers of history, mysteries and certainly art.
Note: I received "The Art Detectives" as part of the Goodreads First Read program.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Behind the scenes..., June 22, 2010
This review is from: The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds, and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures (Hardcover)
Philip Mould takes a wonderfully interesting look at how art restoration works. But, in looking at restoration of existing paintings, he also delves into how he, as a gallery owner, along with his team, find work that has remained under-valued or unvalued for centuries. And then how that piece, now restored by Mould's experts, ventures back into the art world in renewed glory.
Mould, an appraiser for the BBC's "Antique Roadshow", is also an owner of a gallery in London which specialises in antique portraits. As an aside, I have visited the gallery in the past to see his collection but did not know that this book was written by the gallery's owner until I read the credits. As a book reviewer, I have no reason to falsely rave about his book, even though I have enjoyed visiting his gallery. I suppose that being a fan of antique portraits gave me the impetus to read and review the book, however.
Mould takes five or so examples of "found" paintings - one from his "Antique Roadshow" - and writes how instinct and education about a painter, his other work, the painting's subject's history, and other "intangables' go into Mould and his staff taking on an often dirty and undistinguished painting on the chance that the painting is "the real thing" - a real Rembrandt, a real Homer Winslow, etc. Probably the most interesting story was that of a Norman Rockwell painting on display at the Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts that...wasn't. Wasn't the "real" Rockwell painting, but rather one done by a disciple of Rockwell, who copied the original for reasons sort of murky, and donated to the museum. The "real" Rockwell was found by the copier's sons after his death and turned over to the museum.
The other examples Mould cites are almost as interesting. Each is a story in-and-of-itself, and most end conclusively. The last painting in the book, that of a Winslow Homer, "found" in Ireland of all places, has
been the subject of ownership dispute which have not been worked out yet.
Mould's book is a wonderful read for those interested in art history and in art restoration. Some of the paintings found did not need massive restoration but a few did and Mould recounts the intricacies of physical restoration. Not a long book, Mould makes the most of his subject with descriptions and interviews with his fellow art historians and sellers.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written but too much breading....., August 20, 2010
This review is from: The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds, and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures (Hardcover)
I listened to the audio book version of the book and I found it interesting yet frustrating. Some of the stories were quite interesting but getting there took some time. I was expecting many case studies with shorter time spent on each one. I lasted till I was about half way through the book. That's when the author started to talk about Rembrandt and it went round and round there for a long while without getting to the meat of the story (therefore my reference to "breading"). I just gave up. I know the book got very good reviews from other readers, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
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